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TIDELANDS

OIL

A Controversy That Helped Shape The Modern Land OfficeBy Mark Dallas Loeffler

Padre Islands Under Six Flags by Jerry Sadler,commissioner of the Texas General Land Office.Provided by the GLO.

HERITA

n June 12, 1950, 200 angry Texans gathered inN0Nocona to petition the Texas Legislature to secedefrom the Union. Congressmen had alreadyannounced how the new Republic of Texas would be divided intofive states. Elected officials were rallying supporters via the airwaves,and the land commissioner of Texas made it clear that hethought Texas should leave the Union. At the center of the battlewas millions of acres under the Gulf of Mexico and the oil containedthere.Since the early 18th century, nations have struggled to determineownership of the marginal seas along their shorelines. InRoman times, the seas were deemed free and open, with no nationable to claim ownership. Later, it was generally held that a nationcould claim as much of its bordering seas as it could control.In 1704, Dutch jurist Cornelius van Bynkershoek proposed thatthe minimum limits of a nation's ownership of its marginal seas beset at the distance of a cannon shot. By the end of the century,Fernando Galiani suggested the distance of a cannon shot be set atthree miles, and many nations adopted his suggestion.The new colonies in America were granted charters thatextended their boundaries up to 10 marine leagues from the shore.While the issue of marginal seas was not addressed in theAmerican Revolution or the Constitution, it was clear the newUnited States of America recognized that component states had aright to the seas on their borders.In 1836, colonists and settlers in the Mexican state of Coahuilay Tejas revolted and won their freedom at the Battle of SanJacinto. The Congress of the new nation promptly expanded itsseaward boundary from the two leagues it enjoyed under Spanishand Mexican rule to three marine leagues, or about 10.3 miles.This was a decision that would have enormous repercussions forTexas.GEM WINTER 2004